What Does ".com" Mean?

The domain address suffix ".com" stands for "commercial." In the early days of the Internet, sites with .com addresses were businesses with the intent of selling something, either directly or indirectly. The .com suffix contrasts with .gov, .edu and .org, which represent government, education and organization entities.

The .com suffix is the most popular top-level domain address. Once Internet access spread across the globe, .com lost its meaning as a commercial designator. Now, anyone can purchase a URL with a .com top-level domain for any purpose, including commercial, personal and educational. Though there is no technical difference between sites with different top-level domains, a .com URL is generally seen as more reputable than some other top-level domains, such as .info or .biz.